


the veins grow in slow

by leonshardt



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 09:12:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12884703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leonshardt/pseuds/leonshardt
Summary: This is not a story about things that could have been.[For the Blackwatch Zine]





	the veins grow in slow

The truth is, Genji could not have stayed in Hanamura.

Oh, but maybe if his brother had been less stubborn, or if his father had loved him more, or if he himself had been more disciplined, more devoted, more careful, playing the part of a cherished son, the dutiful heir, maybe, maybe everything could have turned out differently.

But this is not a story about things that could have been.

  


“You comin’ or what, Shimada?” McCree calls, and Genji pushes past him, sheathes his blade, climbs into the helicarrier; does not meet his eyes on the way back.

  


He wasn’t born a weapon but he is one nonetheless, was made into one, piece by piece, lesson by lesson, and he would resent it, would hate himself for it, but right now it’s what he needs to be. And it’s not the augmentations or the conditioning or the orders from Overwatch that will send him back to his ancestral home, but something simpler, something more visceral, the part of him that was his father’s son, the part that loved his brother, the part that was slain. Genji could not have stayed in Hanamura, but his return was inevitable.

You don’t fuck with family. Twenty-eight years old, and Genji is beginning to understand why.

  


“This is a terrible rescue attempt,” Genji says. The streets are too narrow, the sirens too loud, smoke burning his lungs as he weaves through a crowd not quite thick enough to count as cover.

“I know,” McCree says, and he’s the best backup money can’t buy, the backup Genji never asked for. “Now can we get the hell out of here, please?”

  


Later, he could have told himself that what he did was for the greater good, for justice and peace, for Blackwatch, even, but to be honest Reyes’ eyes weren’t proud when he landed back in base, just blank, just tired. A part of him expects to feel different, but he still wakes up every day, still misses his brother, still feels lost in this slipshod, painful life. He knows he could stay, because Blackwatch is as good a place as any, because people are hard to give up when you’ve got no one else, because family is more than flesh and blood, family is something you can choose, and it’s funny that it took Genji twenty-eight years to realize this. But McCree is still an optimist and Reyes still believes in good men and Genji, Genji still wakes up every day and misses his brother, and he could have stayed but it wasn’t always that simple, and besides, it’s not about what he could have done.

  


“Really? A casino?” Genji says, and he should know better by now, because some things are just too trite to be anything but true.

McCree just adjusts his bowtie, smirks around his cigar, says, “Darlin’, I couldn’t make this up if I tried.”

  


_This is not about things that could have been,_ Genji thinks, as McCree’s hand finds his wrist, not holding him back but just holding him, fingers curled against the metal like he touches his own gun. _This is about things that are, and what could yet be._

“Do not wait for me,” he says, and thinks he could have stayed, just one last time, one more mission, one more night to not be alone, but this isn’t a story about things that could have been, just things that are, just McCree, just family, just Blackwatch.

 


End file.
